DIVERSITY  OF  CALIF 
U  JOLLAS 


Slttatthtt?  nf  Ammra 


PAPERS 

OF  THE 

SCHOOL  OF  AMERICAN 
ARCHAEOLOGY 

number  fifteen 

EXPLORATIONS  IN  SOUTHWESTERN  UTAH 
IN  1908 


ALFRED  VINCENT  KIDDER 


igio 


Institute 
of  America 


EXPLORATIONS   IN   SOUTHEASTERN   UTAH 

IN   1908 


THROUGH  the  generosity  of  Colonel  E.  A.  Wall  of  Salt  Lake 
City  the  Utah  Society  of  the  Archaeological  Institute  of  Amer- 
ica is  enabled  to  send  an  expedition  into  the  field  each  summer 
to  study  the  archaeological  remains  which  are  scattered  thickly 
throughout  the  southern  part  of  the  State,  and  to  make  collec- 
tions for  the  Museum  of  the  University  of  Utah.  It  was  my 
good  fortune  to  be  appointed  Field  Assistant  for  the  year  1908, 
and  put  with  Professor  Byron  Cummings  of  the  University  of 
Utah  in  joint  charge  of  the  summer's  field  campaign. 

We  were  instructed  by  Dr.  Edgar  L.  Hewett,  Director  of 
American  Archaeology,  to  choose  a  region  in  Southeastern 
Utah,  spend  a  couple  of  weeks  in  its  exploration,  and  then 
select  a  site  to  be  excavated  during  the  remainder  of  the  sea- 
son. Having  thus  the  freedom  of  action  essential  to  successful 
field  work,  Professor  Cummings  and  I  met  on  June  11  at 
Monticello,  Utah,  and  decided  to  explore  the  western  tributa- 
ries of  Montezuma  Creek,  in  the  southeastern  portion  of  San 
Juan  County,  hoping  not  only  to  obtain  some  idea  of  the  num- 
ber and  distribution  of  the  prehistoric  remains  of  that  region, 
but  also  to  find  a  ruin  suitable  for  excavation. 

We  left  Monticello  on  June  12,  accompanied  by  Messrs. 
Neil  Judd  and  Clifford  Lockhart,  students  in  the  University  of 
Utah,  and  James  Hambleton,  a  cattleman,  who  was  of  great 
assistance  to  us  as  a  guide.  Later  in  the  month,  while  we  were 
engaged  in  excavations  about  Cave  Springs,  we  were  joined  by 
Messrs.  H.  G.  de  Fritsch  and  Leavitt  C.  Parsons,  both  students 
in  Harvard  University.  These  gentlemen  remained  with  us 
to  the  close  of  the  season  and,  with  Messrs.  Judd  and  Lockhart, 
were  constantly  at  the  works,  where  they  rendered  valuable 

American  Journal  of  Archaeology,  Second  Series.     Journal  of  the  007 

Archaeological  Institute  of  America,  Vol.  XIV  (1910),  No.  3. 


338 


A.    V.    KIDDER 


assistance.     I  am  indebted  to  Messrs,  de  Fritsch  and  Parsons 
for  the  map  of  the  ruin  given  in  Figure  2. 
Our  work  closed  on  August  1. 

Montezuma  Canon  (see  Fig.  1),  or  Montezuma  Creek,  as  it  is 
locally  called,  is  a  deep  and  rather  narrow  valley,  which  heads 

in    the    eastern  slopes 

(j  ^  of  the  Sierra  Abajo  or 

^T   ^-  v- — x  Blue   Mountains,    and 

'  flows   in    a    southerly 

direction  some  45  miles 
before  emptying  into 
the  San  Juan  River. 
Its  eastern  tributaries 
drain  the  long  mesa 
which  separates  it  from 
the  McElmo  -  Yellow 
Jacket  system,  while 
on  the  west  its  upper 
tributaries  all  head 
against  the  eastern  and 
southern  slopes  of  the 
Abajos.  The  work  of 
the  expedition  was  con- 
fined to  these  upper 
western  tributaries. 
According  to  the  cat- 
tlemen of  the  vicinity 
the  lower  western  can- 
ons are  short  and  con- 
tain few  ruins. 

Montezuma  Creek 
itself  contains  running 
water  throughout  its 
whole  course  only  in 
wet  seasons.  At  other 
times  the  stream  sinks  into  the  sand  far  above  its  mouth,  and 
continues  to  the  San  Juan  in  the  form  of  an  underflow  which 
reappears  here  and  there  in  the  form  of  "  seep  springs."  Along 


FIGURE  1. — SKETCH  MAP  OF  WESTERN  TRIBU- 
TARIES OF  MONTEZUMA  CREEK.  SCALE  :  1  INCH 
TO  12  MILES. 

(*  Marks  the  ruin  excavated.) 


EXPLORATIONS  IN   UTAH  339 

the  course  of  the  river  there  is  a  considerable  growth  of  cotton- 
woods,  but  apart  from  these  there  is  little  vegetation  in  the 
canon-bottom.  The  surrounding  sandstone  mesas,  however,  are 
thickly  overgrown  with  dwarf  cedar  and  pinon  trees,  replaced, 
as  the  country  rises  toward  the  Abajos,  by  spruce  and  yellow 
pine.  The  western  tributaries  are  merely  smaller  replicas  of 
the  Montezuma  itself,  being,  in  most  places,  narrow,  gorge-like 
canons  with  barren,  sandy  bottoms  and  abrupt,  cliff-like  sides. 
None  of  them  contain  live  water  in  their  lower  reaches  during 
the  summer  except  after  heavy  rains  in  the  Abajos.  By  digging 
in  the  stream-beds,  however,  a  small  supply  of  rather  alkaline 
water  may  usually  be  obtained.  A  few  fine  clear  springs  are 
to  be  found,  chiefly  in  Alkali  Canon  and  its  branches. 

The  first  considerable  upper  western  tributary  of  Montezuma 
Creek  is  Long  Caiion.  It  heads  against  the  Abajos  and  flows 
in  a  southeasterly  direction,  gradually  becoming  deeper  and 
more  barren,  until  it  debouches  upon  a  wide  "  bench "  above 
Montezuma  Creek.  Devil's  Caiion,  the  next  valley  to  the  south, 
follows  practically  a  parallel  course.  Alkali  Canon,  the  largest 
western  branch,. again  heads  in  the  Abajos,  but  instead  of  flow- 
ing east  during  its  whole  course,  soon  turns  nearly  south,  thence 
running  parallel  and  close  to  Montezuma  Canon  for  some  15  or 
20  miles  before  eventually  entering  it.  This  leaves  a  narrow 
mesa,  called  Alkali  Ridge,  between  the  two  systems. 

Because  of  the  narrowness  of  this  ridge,  all  the  canons  empty- 
ing into  Montezuma  Caiion  between  the  mouths  of  Devil  and 
Alkali  canons  are  short.  The  majority  of  them  are  little  more 
than  draws  and  probably  contain  few  ruins.  The  country  in 
that  region  is,  however,  so  split  up  and  broken,  and  presents 
such  a  tangle  of  steep  gullies,  cliffs,  and  precipitous  ravines,  that 
many  weeks  would  be  necessary  for  its  complete  exploration. 

We  confined  ourselves,  therefore,  to  a  study  of  Long,  Devil's, 
and  Alkali  canons  ;  and  also  examined  the  ruins  about  the 
heads  of  Rustler's  and  Ruin  canons.  The  former  is  a  small 
western  branch  of  Alkali  Caiion ;  the  latter  one  of  the 
largest  of  the  short  draws  which  drain  Alkali  Ridge  and  run 
into  Montezuma  Caiion. 

The  prehistoric  remains  of  the  region  fall  into  three  well- 
defined  groups :  (1)  Cliff-dwellings,  (2)  Canon-head  dwell- 


340  A.    V.    KIDDEE 

ings,  and  (3)  Pueblos.  Cliff-dwellings  are  built  in  caves  or 
on  ledges  of  the  cliffs.  Caiion-head  dwellings  are  loose  aggre- 
gations consisting  of  a  considerable  number  of  separate  small 
houses,  which  are  always  formed  about  the  abrupt  ends  of  small 
canons.  Pueblos  are  more  or  less  compact  settlements  built  in 
the  open,  either  on  the  mesa-tops  or  in  the  canon-bottoms. 

Cliff-dwellings  were  found  scattered  thickly  throughout  the 
whole  region  explored,  from  the  heads  of  the  tributary  canons 
to  their  mouths,  and  all  along  the  course  of  Montezuma  Creek 
itself.  They  were,  indeed,  the  only  buildings  found  in  the 
greater  part  of  Long  and  Devil's  canons  and  in  the  headwaters 
of  Alkali  Canon.  The  two  or  three  pueblos  which  we  noticed  in 
those  regions  were  very  small,  and  had  every  appearance  of 
having  been  merely  temporary  affairs. 

Two  canon-head  groups  were  found  in  the  branches  of  Ruin 
Canon,  one  at  the  head  of  Rustler's  Canon,  and  two  in  small 
western  tributaries  of  Alkali  Canon. 

There  are  many  large  pueblos  about  the  middle  and  lower 
reaches  of  Alkali  Canon  and  along  the  side  branches  of  Ruin 
Canon.  There  seems  to  have  been  a  great  centre  of  population 
along  the  whole  middle  portion  of  Alkali  Ridge.  The  majority 
of  these  large  ruins  are  situated  on  the  mesa,  the  few  which 
are  to  be  found  in  the  bed  of  Alkali  Canon  itself  being  rather 
small. 

CLIFF-DWELLINGS 

Cliff-houses  are  built  in  every  conceivable  sort  of  situation, 
and  therefore  cannot,  of  course,  be  classified  by  shape  or  loca- 
tion. The  simplest  type  is  a  small  natural  cave  made  into  a 
single  room  by  the  addition  of  a  wall  closing  in  the  front. 
Between  this  and  such  buildings  as  Cliff-Palace  and  Sprucetree 
House  on  the  Mesa  Verde,  which  are  really  great  pueblos  built 
in  caves,  and  hardly  dependent  at  all  on  the  cliffs,  there  is  an 
endless  variety  of  types.  None  of  the  cliff-houses  in  the  region 
here  under  discussion,  however,  are  of  any  great  size.  The 
largest  of  them  do  not  contain  over  eight  or  ten  rooms,  while 
the  majority  are  merely  single-  or  double-room  structures, 
their  roofs  and  back  walls  usually  being  supplied  by  the  cave 
in  which  they  are  built. 


•     EXPLORATIONS  IN    UTAH  341 

In  spite  of  their  small  size  these  cliff-dwellings  are  neverthe- 
less interesting  in  that  they  show  great  ingenuity  of  construc- 
tion and  bear  testimony  to  the  adaptability  and  resourcefulness 
of  their  builders.  Their  protected  situations,  also,  have  shielded 
them  from  rain  and  snow,  and  so  preserved  for  our  study  cer- 
tain architectural  features,  such  as  doorways,  beams,  and  roof- 
ing, which,  in  the  pueblo  ruins  in  the  open,  have  long  since 
disappeared. 

The  masonry  of  the  cliff-dwellings  of  the  Montezuma  Canon 
district  is  much  inferior  to  that  seen  on  the  Mesa  Verde  to  the 
east  and  in  Grand  Gulch  to  the  west.  The  building-stones 
were  here  simply  cracked  out  or  picked  up  at  random,  and  at 
best  very  rudely  shaped.  Many  of  the  walls  consist  merely 
of  small,  irregular  stones  set  in  adobe  with  no  attempt  at 
coursing.  The  surfaces,  both  inside  and  out,  are  usually 
coated  with  adobe  roughly  laid  on  with  a  wooden  implement 
or  with  the  hand.  Beyond  this  there  is  little  plastering, 
although  all  cracks  and  crevices  in  the  back  or  cliff  walls  of 
the  houses  are  carefully  plugged  up  with  small  stones  or  corn- 
cobs set  in  adobe.  The  floors  of  the  rooms  are  seldom  levelled 
or  filled  in  to  do  away  with  irregularities,  the  natural  rock 
being  left  without  modification.  Wooden  beams  are  sometimes 
incorporated  in  the  masonry,  usually  along  the  foundations  of 
walls,  for  the  purpose,  probably,  of  bridging  spaces  which  it 
would  be  difficult  to  span  with  masonry.  This  use  of  wood 
is  very  uncommon  on  the  Mesa  Verde  and  McElmo,  but  I  have 
been  told  that  farther  to  the  west,  in  White  Canon  and  Grand 
Gulch,  it  is  a  very  common  style  of  building,  and  that  some 
of  the  houses  are  almost  entirely  constructed  of  logs  and  adobe. 

Another  feature  which  is  comparatively  rare  on  the  Mesa 
Verde,1  but  of  which  we  found  a  fine  example  in  a  small  house 
in  Devil's  Canon,  is  the  wattle-work  wall.  This  wall  was  be- 
gun after  the  manner  of  a  picket  fence  by  placing  upright  and 
about  a  foot  apart  a  number  of  slim  cedar  poles.  These  poles 
were  then  wattled  together  with  twigs  and  osiers,  making  a 
fairly  close  and  basket-like  surface,  which  was  then  coated 
inside  and  out  with  adobe  until  the  whole  had  a  thickness  of 
about  three  inches.  This  construction  appeared  to  form  an 
1  It  occurs  in  a  ruin  in  Fewkes  Canon  and  in  Long  House. 


342  A.    V.    KIDDER 

addition  to  the  house,  and  to  have  been  built  at  a  later  time 
than  the  other  walls. 

The  cliff-dwellings  of  the  region  are,  as  a  rule,  very  small 
and  for  the  most  part  placed  in  caves  so  low  that  their  roofs 
are  also  the  roofs  of  the  rooms.  For  this  reason  artificial  roofs 
were  seldom  necessary,  and  as  all  traces  of  the  roofs  of  the 
pueblos  in  the  open  have  long  since  rotted  away,  our  study 
of  this  feature  of  ths  architecture  was  limited  to  a  single 
example  offered  by  a  cliff-dwelling  in  Devil's  Canon.  This 
house,  built  on  a  ledge  some  15  feet  above  the  talus  slope, 
consists  of  a  series  of  seven  or  eight  rooms,  the  westernmost 
of  which  are  partly  protected  from  the  elements  by  a  projection 
of  the  cliff  overhead.  The  last  room  of  the  house  is  excellently 
preserved.  It  is  8  feet  long  by  4  feet  wide,  the  back  wall 
being  formed  by  the  cliff.  At  a  height  of  7  feet  6  inches 
from  the  floor  a  cedar  beam  8  inches  in  diameter  at  the 
small  end  runs  the  length  of  the  middle  of  the  room  par- 
allel to  the  cliff.  Its  two  ends  are  set  into  the  masonry  of 
the  walls  without  projecting  through.  At  right  angles  to  this 
main  beam  and  resting  upon  it  are  four  smaller  beams  about 
2  inches  thick.  Their  outside  ends  are  set  in  the  masonry 
of  the  outer  wall,  the  inner  ends  resting  against  the  cliff,  where 
they  are  held  in  place  by  daubs  of  adobe.  Upon  this  second 
series,  and  at  right  angles  to  it,  or  parallel  to  the  main  beam, 
are  laid  slabs  of  split  cedar  of  about  the  length  and  thickness 
of  ordinary  "shakes."  They  cover  the  entire  roof,  and  a  layer 
of  adobe  some  3  inches  thick  is  placed  directly  upon  them. 
There  is  no  coat  of  cedar-bark  between  the  adobe  and  the 
wooden  part  of  the  roofing,  such  as  usually  occurs  in  Mesa 
Verde  houses.  The  top  of  the  roof  is  carefully  levelled  off, 
the  walls  rising  a  few  inches  higher  than  its  upper  surface.  A 
trapdoor  leads  from  the  room  below  to  the  open  housetop. 
This  door  is  20  inches  long  by  15  inches  wide  and  was  coped 
about  by  flat  stones,  one  of  which  is  still  in  place.  The 
other  rooms  of  the  building  seem  to  have  been  covered  in  the 
same  way,  although  they  are  in  a  so  much  more  advanced  state 
of  ruin  that  the  beams  have  nearly  all  rotted  away. 

For  statistics  as  to  doors  also  we  are  dependent  on  the  cliff- 
dwellings,  for  in  them  alone  are  the  entrances  sufficiently  well 


EXPLORATIONS  IN   UTAH  343 

preserved  for  measurement  and  study.  We  found  them  to 
differ  little  from  those  of  the  Mesa  Verde  and  McElmo.  They 
are  rectangular,  and  an  average  of  the  many  examples  that  we 
examined  gives  the  following  dimensions :  height  22£  inches, 
width  15  inches,  thickness  of  wall  11  inches,  height  from  floor 
of  room  20  inches.  They  are  usually  fitted  with  a  single  large 
slab  of  sandstone  for  a  sill,  while  the  lintels  are  made  either  of 
a  similar  slab  or  of  several  small  wooden  rods  sunk  in  the  ma- 
sonry of  the  jambs.  A  single  rod  about  an  inch  below  the 
middle  of  the  lintel  served  as  a  rest  for  the  stone  slab  which 
was  used  to  close  the  door.  The  Tau-shaped  door  does  not,  so 
far  as  I  know,  occur  in  the  western  tributaries,  although  in 
Montezuma  Creek  itself  we  noticed  one  example. 

What  the  purpose  of  such  large  numbers  of  cliff-dwellings 
could  have  been  is  more  or  less  a  puzzle.  That  they  were  of 
the  same  culture  as  the  pueblos  seems  proved  by  the  potsherds 
found  in  both.  With  the  exception  of  two  houses  in  Devil's 
Caiion,  one  in  Ruin  Canon,  and  one  or  two  in  Alkali  Caiion, 
none  of  them  contain  more  than  two  or  three  rooms,  while  the 
great  majority  are  nothing  more  than  single  chambers  hardly 
large  enough  to  hold  a  man,  and  usually  built  in  caves  so  low 
that  one  cannot  sit  upright  in  them.  Even  the  larger  exam- 
ples just  mentioned  contain  only  six  or  eight  rooms,  and  even 
these  groups  do  not  contain  the  kiva  or  ceremonial  room.  The 
relation  of  the  kiva  to  the  religious  and  tribal  life  of  the  pre- 
historic people  is  as  yet  not  clearly  understood,  but  it  neverthe- 
less seems  probable  that  no  permanent  dwelling-place  could 
exist  without  it.  For  this  reason  the  absence  of  the  kiva  from 
even  the  largest  of  the  cliff-dwellings  makes  it  seem  improbable 
that  these  buildings  were  ever  continuously  inhabited.  Whether 
they  were  lookout  places,  granaries,  or  shelters  from  which  to 
watch  the  cornfields,  are  questions  which  it  is  better  to  leave 
open  until  more  complete  data  as  to  their  exact  topographical 
situation  and  their  relations  one  to  another  and  to  the  larger 
pueblo  groups  can  be  collected. 

CANON-HEAD  GROUPS 

The  canon-head  groups  differ,  as  has  been  stated  above,  from 
the  pueblos  chiefly  in  being  scattered  aggregations  of  small 


344  A.    V.    K1DDER 

houses,  rather  than  many  houses  or  groups  of  rooms  brought 
together  to  form  a  more  or  less  compact,  or  at  least  contiguous, 
whole.  The  component  buildings,  none  of  which  are  individu- 
ally of  any  great  size,  form,  nevertheless,  collectively  a  consid- 
erable group.  In  at  least  three  cases,  i.e.  at  the  head  of  Rust- 
ler's Canon  and  in  the  two  branches  of  Ruin  Canon,  they  are 
only  a  few  hundred  yards  distant  from  large  pueblos.  This 
fact  suggested  to  us  that  they  might  have  been  block-houses  or 
watch-towers  to  guard  the  springs  which  at  one  time  certainly 
existed  directly  below  the  buildings  and  which  must  have 
formed  the  chief  water  supply  of  the  near-by  pueblos.  A 
fourth  group,  although  a  small  one  and  not  directly  at  the  head 
of  a  canon,  guards  Cave  Springs,  a  locality  which,  from  its 
abundant  supply  of  water  and  its  propinquity  to  several  large 
ruins,  must  have  been  strategically  very  important. 

Further  evidence  that  tends  to  strengthen  the  theory  that 
these  structures  were  fortifications  rather  than  regular  dwelling- 
places  is  offered  by  the  fact  that  they  do  not  often  seem  to  con- 
tain kivas,  have  no  well-defined  burial  places,  and  are  almost 
all  built  on  the  edge  of  the  rim-rock,  on  the  tops  of  large  boul- 
ders, or  in  other  easily  defensible  places.  They  are  now  so 
badly  ruined,  however,  that  little  can  be  said  of  their  original 
ground  plan  or  architecture.  Excavation  would  conclusively 
prove  whether  or  not  they  are  of  the  same  culture  as  the  other 
remains  of  the  region.  From  the  potsherds  found  about  them 
there  seems  no  reasonable  ground  for  supposing  them  to  be  the 
work  of  a  different  people  or  a  different  period. 

PUEBLOS 

The  larger  pueblos  are  nearly  all  to  be  found  on  the  tops  of 
the  cedar-covered  mesas  between  the  canons.  We  mapped  over 
twenty  good-sized  groups  in  a  small  section  of  Alkali  Ridge 
alone,  as  well  as  a  very  large  settlement  above  the  head  of 
Rustler's  Canon.  These  pueblos  are  so  badly  ruined  that  they 
are  now  merely  low  mounds  thickly  strewn  with  fallen  building- 
stones  and  heavily  overgrown  with  sagebrush  and  greasewood. 
They  are  usually  situated  on  the  crest  of  a  ridge  some  distance 
back  from  the  ruins  of  the  canons,  thus  occupying  the  highest 


EXPLORATIONS  IN    UTAH  345 

ground  in  the  immediate  vicinity  with  a  view  out  over  the 
cornfields  that  must  once  have  surrounded  them. 

The  smaller  pueblos  always  seem  to  have  consisted  of  a  sin- 
gle or  double  row  of  rooms  running  roughly  east  and  west,  with 
one  or  more  kivas,  which  appear  as  shallow  circular  depressions 
15  or  20  feet  across,  lying  just  to  the  south  of  them.  To 
the  south  of  the  kivas  again  is  found  the  cemetery,  a  low 
mound  thickly  covered  with  potsherds.  The  larger  ruins  are 
merely  multiplications  of  the  unit  just  described,  with  a  corre- 
spondingly greater  number  of  kivas  and  cemeteries. 

As  the  burial  mounds  are  unfortunately  quite  obvious,  they 
have  been  much  pillaged  by  "  pot-hunters,"  relic-seekers,  and 
other  vandals,  who,  digging  carelessly,  have  broken  fully  as 
much  as  they  have  recovered,  and  who  have  also  entirely  de- 
stroyed the  skeletal  remains.  We  were  fortunate,  therefore,  to 
find  for  our  excavation  a  large  ruin  with  two  burial  mounds, 
one  of  which  had  been  only  partially  dug  over,  while  the  other 
one  was  practically  untouched. 

This  pueblo,  quite  typical  of  the  larger  examples  of  its  class, 
is  built  upon  a  cedar-covered  ridge  some  200  yards  from 
the  head  of  one  of  the  terminal  branches  of  Ruin  Canon. 
At  that  point  there  is  a  large  canon-head  group,  which  must 
have  protected  the  water  supply  for  the  community  and  was 
perhaps  built  for  that  purpose.  The  pueblo  itself  is  a  strag- 
gling structure  of  many  wings  and  additions,  500  feet  long  and, 
at  its  widest  part,  about  300  feet  across.  The  wings,  it  will  be 
noticed  (Fig.  2),  run  for  the  most  part  east  and  west;  the  kivas 
lie  to  the  south  of  the  two  largest  lateral  wings. 

We  made  our  camp  at  Cave  Springs,  a  mile  and  a  half  west 
of  the  ruin.  The  water  of  that  spring  is  fresh,  cold,  and  abun- 
dant, and  there  is  ample  feed  for  a  few  horses  in  the  canon  be- 
low. We  remained  at  this  ruin  for  nearly  five  weeks,  laying 
bare  seventeen  rooms  and  three  kivas.  We  also  completely 
dug  over  the  two  burial  mounds  and  spent  several  days  on  the 
mounds  of  two  small  ruins  to  the  east. 

The  task  of  excavation  was  slow  and  arduous,  as  we  were 
unable  to  secure  proper  picks  to  pry  out  the  quantities  of  tightly 
packed  fallen  stones  which  filled  the  rooms  and  kivas;  and 
having  only  one  wheelbarrow  we  were  often  forced  to  handle 


346 


A.    F.    KIDDER 


FIGCRE  2.  —  PLAN  OF  RUIN  ON  ALKALI  RIDGE. 


EXPLORATIONS  IN    UTAH 


347 


our  back  dirt  two  or  even  three  times.  The  results  were, 
nevertheless,  fairly  satisfactory;  we  procured  about  four  hun- 
dred museum  specimens,  among  them  thirty  pieces  of  unbroken 
pottery,  besides  many  pieces  in  fragments,  which  Professor 
Cummings  has  since  successfully  restored.  We  also  recovered 
a  considerable  series  of  crania  and  other  skeletal  remains.  A 
report  on  these  last  by  some  competent  somatologist  will,  we 
hope,  be  presented  at  an  early  date. 

Digging  was  begun  at  the  east  end  of  the  northernmost  wing 
(Fig.    3),    and    here    we   occupied    ourselves  for   nearly   two 


FIGURE  3.  —  SOUTHEAST  END  OF  NORTH  WING. 

weeks  in  clearing  rooms  and  kivas.  We  not  only  emptied  the 
rooms  themselves,  but  ran  trenches  all  along  the  outside  of  the 
house,  laying  bare  the  walls  to  their  foundations.  Even  in  the 
best  preserved  sections  these  walls  did  not  stand,  when  exca- 
vated, to  a  height  of  over  4  feet,  but  such  large  quantities  of 
fallen  building-stones  were  present  that  it  seems  safe  to  assign 
a  height  of  two  stories  to  the  entire  building.  On  the  other 
hand,  its  narrowness  throughout  argues  against  the  former  pres- 
ence of  more  than  two  stories;  so  that  we  seem  to  have  here  a 
fairly  low  and  much  spread-out  structure  which  must  have  been 


348  A.    V.    KIDDER 

quite  different  in  appearance  from  the  more  common,  terraced 
type  of  pueblo,  which  was  compact  in  ground  plan  and  rose  to 
a  considerable  height.  Such  a  village  as  the  one  under  dis- 
cussion could  not  have  been  easily  defended. 

The  need  for  defence,  apparently  not  so  keenly  felt  here,  was 
met  in  the  Mesa  Verde  district,  in  the  Caiion  de  Chelly,  and 
elsewhere,  by  building  in  caves  and  on  ledges  difficult  of  access 
and  easily  defensible  ;  while  the  pueblos  of  the  McElmo  were 
placed  upon  the  edges  of  precipitous  rim-rocks,  their  otherwise 
unprotected  mesa  or  back  wall  being  high  and  without  ground- 
floor  doorways.1  In  the  Chaco  Caiion,  as  well  as  in  other  parts 
of  the  Southwest,  pueblos,  where  built  in  the  open,  are  made 
safe  from  marauders  by  their  compact  form.  In  this  case,  how- 
ever, the  buildings  are  in  no  way  protected  by  the  configuration 
of  the  land,  and  the  various  component  wings  are  so  loosely 
strung  together  that  no  combined  resistance  to  a  sudden  attack 
could  have  been  made. 

Living-rooms.  —  The  excavation  of  the  living-rooms  gave 
very  little  insight  into  the  minor  features  of  the  architecture 
of  the  pueblo.  As  only  the  lower  courses  of  the  walls  were 
standing,  we  were  unable  to  recover  any  evidence  as  to  the 
system  of  roofing  or  the  method  of  door  construction,  while  the 
floors  could  only  here  and  there  be  made  out.  They  seemed 
to  be,  as  usual,  of  hard-packed  adobe.  The  plastering,  too, 
had  almost  entirely  disappeared  from  the  walls. 

The  rooms  were  fairly  uniform  in  size,  averaging  about  10 
feet  long  by  5  feet  wide.  The  easternmost  chamber,  however 
(Fig.  4),  which  had  apparently  been  used  as  a  granary,  was 
longer  than  any  other  that  we  observed  (23  feet).  A  violent 
conflagration  had  raged  in  this  room,  oxidizing  a  large  quantity 
of  corn  on  the  cob.  The  heat  of  the  fire  had  been  great  enough 
to  vitrify,  arid  in  some  places  even  to  turn  into  a  sort  of  irides- 
cent slag,  parts  of  the  adobe  of  the  walls  and  ceiling.  Frag- 
ments of  black-and-white  pottery  had  been  burned  to  a  reddish 
yellow  color,  the  black  paint  becoming  a  rich  brick-red.  The 
body  of  the  ware  was  greatly  hardened  and  in  spots  vitrified. 
Such  conditions  as  this  may  possibly  account  for  the  rumors 

1  S.  G.  Morley,  '  The  Excavation  of  Cannonball  Ruins,'  American  An- 
thropologist, Vol.  X,  N.S.  1908,  p.  597. 


EXPLORATIONS  IN    UTAH 


349 


which  one  hears  in  the  Southwest  of  the  finding  of  cliff- 
dwellers'  remains  imbedded  in  volcanic  ash  or  lava,  rumors 
that  are  sometimes  quoted  to  prove  the  immense  age  of  the 
prehistoric  period. 

The  masonry  throughout  the  pueblo  is  much  inferior  to  that 
of  the  buildings  of  the  McElmo  and  the  cliff-dwellings  of  the 
Mesa  Verde.  Little  attempt  had  been  made  to  shape  the  stones, 


Plan  of  Excavated 
,s  Portion  of 

\  Alkali  Ridge  Ruin 

I  Scale  /"=  30' 

N 
FIGURE  4.  —  PLAN  OF  EXCAVATED  PORTION-  OF  RUIN. 

the  rough  blocks  and  fragments,  quarried  in  the  near-by  canon, 
being  merely  hammered  or  cracked  out  and  laid  up  in  adobe 
with  scarcely  a  semblance  of  coursing. 

In  several  places  cedar  posts  were  incorporated  in  the  lower 
parts  of  the  walls.  They  were  driven  several  feet  into  the 
ground,  their  upper  ends  sunk  in  'he  masonry.  The  lower 
parts  of  these  stakes  had  been  sharpened  by  fire,  their  charred 
portions  and  the  marks  of  their  bark  in  the  adobe  of  the  walls 
being  usually  the  only  evidence  of  their  former  presence.  All 
roof  beams  and  other  objects  of  wood  were  reduced,  unless 
charred,  to  mere  reddish  streaks  in  the  earth. 

The  finds  in  the  living-rooms  were  very  meagre.  Because  of 
their  extreme  dilapidation  and  from  the  fact  that  no  "mano"  or 
"  metate  "  were  unearthed  in  them,  it  seems  not  unlikely  that 


350  A.    V.    K1DDER 

that  portion  of  the  pueblo  had  been  deserted  and  all  such 
utensils  moved  to  some  other  place. 

Kiva.  —  It  will  be  seen  by  consulting  the  plan  of  the  pueblo 
(Fig.  2)  that  its  forty  or  more  kivas  are  very  evenly  distrib- 
uted among  the  rooms  in  a  proportion  that  may  be  roughly 
estimated  at  one  kiva  to  seven  ground-floor  chambers.  The 
majority  of  the  kivas  lie  to  the  south  of,  and  immediately  con- 
tiguous to,  the  groups  of  rooms  to  which  they  belong.  In 
making  the  plan,  only  large  and  well-marked  circular  depres- 
sions were  called  kivas,  and  it  is  possible  that  there  exist  many 
small  examples  of  the  intramural  type  (Figs.  4,  6,  arid  7), 
which,  before  excavation,  could  not  be  distinguished  from  an 
ordinary  dwelling-room.  The  greater  number  of  the  ceremo- 
nial rooms  of  this  ruin,  and,  so  far  as  we  could  determine,  of  all 
the  sites  in  the  Montezuma  drainage,  are  structurally  quite 
independent  of  the  buildings  to  which  they  belong.  They  are 
not  enclosed  in  a  square  or  rectangular  walled-up  space,  as  was 
found  by  Mr.  Morley  to  be  the  case  on  the  McElmo,1  nor  are 
they  set  among  the  rooms  as  they  are  in  the  cliff-dwellings 
of  the  Mesa  Verde.2  This  fact  is  quite  in  accord  with  the 
straggling  and  loose-knit  plan  of  the  Alkali  Ridge  ruin. 

As  is  the  rule  in  the  San  Juan,  the  kivas  are  subterranean. 
They  are  round,  and,  like  those  of  the  neighboring  regions,  have 
a  plain  lower  wall  some  3^  feet  high,  surmounted  by  six  pilas- 
ters which  divide  the  space  above  the  lower  wall  into  six  niches 
(Fig.  5).  These  pilasters  also  served  to  carry  the  entire  weight 
of  the  roof.3  They  are  usually  about  2|  feet  high,  thus  making 
the  ceiling  of  the  chamber  approximately  6  feet  above  the 
floor.  The  outside  of  the  roofs  of  these  subterranean  rooms 
apparently  formed  a  kind  of  plaza,  which  was  on  about  the 
same  level  as  the  floors  of  the  living-rooms.  There  is  a  slight 
inward  trend  of  both  walls  and  pilasters.  The  kivas  here 
average  about  16  feet  in  diameter. 

Of  the  six  niches  or  recesses,  which  are  divided  from  each 
other  by  the  pilasters,  the  south  one  is  always  the  deepest  and 

1  Loc.  eft.,  p.  600,  and  pi.  XXXVII. 

2  J.  W.  Fewkes,  Bulletin  41,  Bur.  Am.Ethnol. 

3W.  J.  Fewkes,  'Ventilators  in  Ceremonial  Rooms,'  American  Anthro- 
pologist, N.  S.  Vol.  10,  1908,  p.  385. 


EXPLORATIONS  IN   UTAU 


351 


FIGDRE  5. — NORMAL  KIVA. 

broadest  (Fig.  5,  d  d).  The  other  five  are  almost  exactly 
of  the  same  width  and  depth.  Under  the  south  recess  there 
runs  a  horizontal  passage  2|  feet  high  by  1£  foot  wide,  roofed 
with  planks  of  split  cedar  (Fig.  5,  6).  Its  floor  is  a  continuation 


352  A.    V.   KIDDER 

of  the  floor  of  the  kiva.  At  a  distance  of  7  feet  from  the  lower 
wall,  this  passage  turns  upward  at  right  angles  and,  rising  ver- 
tically just  behind  the  back  wall  of  the  south  niche,  it  emerges 
from  the  ground  at  the  level  of  the  kiva  roof.  The  vertical 
passage  grows  quickly  smaller  as  it  rises,  until  at  its  mouth  it 
is  less  than  a  foot  square  (Fig.  5,  a). 

In  front  of  the  opening  of  the  horizontal  passage  into  the  kiva 
and  about  2^  feet  from  its  mouth,  there  is  an  upright  slab  of 
stone  2  feet  wide,  2|-  feet  high,  2  inches  thick.1  (See  Figs.  5,  e, 
8,  and  9.)  A  line  drawn  from  the  entrance  of  the  passage 
through  the  centre  of  the  slab  and  continued  across  the 
floor  would  bisect  the  other  two  principal  features  of  interest; 
namely,  the  fireplace  and  the  "sipapu."  The  firepit  is  a  round 
depression  in  the  floor  3  feet  in  diameter  and  8  inches  deep,  filled 
with  tightly  packed  wood  ashes.  The  "  sipapu  "  is  a  small  hole 
in  the  floor,  barely  large  enough  to  admit  the  hand  and  5  or  6 
inches  in  depth.  It  lies  about  midway  between  the  fireplace 
and  the  back  or  north  wall  of  the  kiva.  (See  Figs.  5,  <?, 
and  9.) 

The  purpose  of  these  various  features  of  kiva  construction  is 
very  difficult  to  determine.  There  seems,  however,  to  be  both 
a  ceremonial  and  a  utilitarian  object  served  by  each  of  them. 
For  instance,  the  six  recesses  have  been  taken  by  some  students 
of  the  subject  to  represent  the  six  cardinal  directions  which 
are  recognized  by  the  pueblo  peoples  of  to-day;  i.e.  north,  south, 
east,  west,  the  zenith,  and  the  nadir.  This  may  very  well  be 
the  case,  but  the  six  buttresses  which  separate  the  said  niches 
are  strictly  utilitarian  in  purpose,  in  that  they  support  the 
entire  weight  of  the  roof  in  a  way  most  economical  of  space  and 
masonry. 

In  the  case  of  the  passage  also  we  are  confronted  by  the  same 
difficulty.  It  is  obvious,  from  the  extreme  smallness  of  its 
ascending  part,  that  it  could  not  have  been  used  as  an  entrance 
to  the  chamber;  while  its  position,  and  the  fact  that  its  walls 
are  seldom  smoked,  proves  that  it  could  not  have  been  a  chim- 

lln  other  localities  this  slab  is  sometimes  replaced  by  a  masonry  wall  of  about 
the  same  height  and  width,  and  in  a  few  cases  by  a  low  curving  wall.  See 
Fewkes.  loc.  cit.,  also  Morley,  loc.  cit.,  p.  602,  and  Nordenski'old,  Cliff  Dwellers 
of  the  Mesa  Verde. 


EXPLORATIONS  IN   UTAH  353 

ney.  It  has  been  called  both  a  "  ceremonial  entrance  "  and  a 
"  ventilator." 

Without  entering  into  a  discussion  on  this  subject,  which  has 
been  most  efficiently  treated  by  Dr.  Fewkes  in  a  recent  paper,1 
in  which  he  puts  forward  the  ventilator  theory,  it  may  be  re- 
marked that  when  the  roof  is  in  place,  and  a  fire  is  lit  in  the 
fireplace,  the  passage  does  act  as  a  ventilator  and  aids  very 
greatly  in  keeping  all  the  air  of  the  chamber  fit  to  breathe.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  highly  specialized  form  of  the  passage  and 
its  almost  invariable  southern  orientation  have  led  others  to 
believe  that  it  may  have  had  some  ceremonial  significance.  It 
seems  probable  that  the  truth  is  to  be  found  in  a  compromise. 
Ceremonial  observances  might  easily  connect  themselves  with 
so  necessary  a  part  of  the  kiva,  and  this  process  once  started, 
religious  conservatism  would  tend  to  fix  and  specialize  features 
which  were  primarily  utilitarian. 

The  slab  of  stone  or  masonry  wall,  which  is  found  between 
the  passage  entrance  and  the  firepit,  has  been  called  both  an 
"altar"  and  a  "deflector."  Here  again  it  seems  that  the  use 
of  this  object  may  have  been  twofold:  it  no  doubt  tended  to 
spread  the  fresh  air  which  came  down  the  ventilator,  and  it  also 
corresponds  closely  to  the  altars  of  modern  Rio  Grande  Pueblo 
kivas.  There  is  nothing  incompatible  in  the  two  functions. 

The  purpose  of  the  firepit  is  sufficiently  obvious,  but  the 
small  opening  in  the  floor,  which,  following  Dr.  Fewkes,  I 
have  called  the  "sipapu,"  is  more  puzzling.  This  little  hole, 
often  made  by  sinking  the  neck  of  a  broken  olla  in  the  adobe, 
is  a  very  constant  feature,  not  only  here,  but  also  in  other 
parts  of  San  Juan.  In  the  modern  Hopi  kivas,  a  hole,  not  un- 
like these  ancient  examples,  is  called  the  "  sipapu  "  or  symboli- 
cal entrance  to  the  Underworld,  and  plays  an  important  part 
in  many  ceremonials. 

Under  the  northeast  buttress  or  pilaster  of  all  the  ceremonial 
rooms  examined  there  is  let  into  the  lower  wall  a  small  niche 
or  cupboard,  about  10  inches  long  by  6  inches  high  and  10 
deep  (Fig.  5,  A,  and  Fig.  6,  A).  This  may  be  seen  in  the 
photograph  (Fig.  9)  ;  on  the  left  another  photograph  (Fig. 
7)  also  shows  clearly  the  difference  in  level  between  the 
1  Fewkes,  'Ventilators  in  Ceremonial  Rooms.' 


354 


A.    V.    EIDDER 


regular  kivas  and  the  living-rooms.     The  kiva  at  the  left  of  the 
picture  is  an  intramural  example  built  on  a  higher  level. 

The  masonry  of  the  kivas  is  superior  to  that  of  the  living- 
rooms,  the  stones  being  better  shaped  and  laid  up  in  fairly  reg- 
ular courses.  In  one  feature  the  kivas  here  differ  markedly 


FIGURE  6. — INTRAMURAL  KIVA. 


from  those  to  the  east.  On  the  Mesa  Verde  and  McElmo  an 
excavation  was  made  and  a  kiva  was  built  in  it  —  a  solid  struc- 
ture of  stone.  Here,  however,  it  is  really  little  more  than  a 
hole  in  the  ground,  the  lower  wall  and  the  six  pilasters  which 
support  the  roof  being  merely  a  veneer  of  masonry  on  the  natu- 
rally close-packed  earth.  The  backs  of  the  recesses,  except  the 
large  southern  one  (Fig.  8),  the  floors  of  all  of  them,  and  the 
sides  of  the  pilasters  are  left  in  the  native  clay  soil.  This  was 
kept  from  caving  in  by  baking  it  with  fires  to  the  consistency 


EXPLORATIONS  IN    UTAH 


355 


of  soft  brick,  and  then  coating  the  hardened  surfaces  with  many 
layers  of  plaster.  This  process  was  apparently  perfectly  effi- 
cient, as  the  back  walls  of  the  recesses  are  still  firm  and  strong, 
and,  although  quite  unsupported  by  masonry,  have  not  in  any 
case  given  way  or  crumbled  in.  Upon  removal  of  a  section  of 
the  lower  wall,  which  was  not  over  three  inches  thick,  the 
ground  behind  it  also  was  found  to  have  been  baked  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  upper  parts.  This  had  been  done  before 


FIGURE  7. — INTRAMURAL  KIVA. 

the  building  of  the  wall.  Such  a  method  as  this  could  only 
have  been  employed  in  a  clayey  soil,  and  is  probably  a  purely 
local  development. 

Intramural  Kiva.  —  The  room  somewhat  to  the  right  of  the 
middle  in  the  plan  of  the  building  (Fig.  4)  and  shown  at  the 
left  of  Figure  7  was  found,  on  excavation,  to  be  a  kiva  (Fig. 
6).  It  is  somewhat  smaller  than  the  other  ceremonial  rooms, 
having  a  diameter  of  21  feet  6  inches.  It  also  differs  from 
them  in  that  it  is  built  above  ground,  on  the  level  of  and  di- 
rectly among  the  living-rooms,  and  lacks  several  characteristic 
features. 


356 


A.    V.    KID  DEE 


In  common  with  the  others  it  has  the  circular  shape,  the 
large  south  recess  with  the  horizontal  passage  under  it,  the  fire- 
place and  the  small  niche  in  the  lower  wall.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  differs  from  the  others  in  that  it  is  built  in  a  square 
chamber,  having  been  made  round  by  filling  in  the  corners  with 
masonry;  it  has  only  two  recesses  besides  the  southern  one, 
and  it  did  not  contain  either  altar  or  "sipapu."  The  horizon- 


KlVA. 


tal  passage,  moreover,  opens  to  the  side  instead  of  in  a  vertical 
direction.  (See  Figs.  4  and  7.) 

How  many  other  ceremonial  rooms  of  this  nature  may  be 
scattered  through  the  pueblo  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  it 
would  seem  that  the  religious  needs  of  the  people  must  have 
been  amply  cared  for  by  the  great  number  of  kivas  in  the  open. 

Burial  Mounds,  — The  burial  places  of  the  community  lay 
to  the  south  of  the  south  and  north  wings.  They  were  both 
well-defined,  low  mounds  of  dark  earth,  easily  distinguishable 
from  the  reddish  adobe  soil  of  the  mesa.  The  southern  mound 
had  been  somewhat  dug  over  by  pottery  hunters  and  the  burials 
much  disturbed ;  bones  and  broken  pottery  lay  everywhere  on 


EXPLORATIONS  IN    UTAH 


357 


the  surface.  We  nevertheless  examined  the  place  carefully, 
recovering  a  fair  number  of  crania  and  a  few  pieces  of  pottery. 
The  north  mound,  however,  had  been  left  practically  undis- 
turbed, and  here  we  uncovered  twenty-eight  burials  and  with 
them  a  considerable  amount  of  pottery,  ornaments,  and  other 
objects.  There  must  have  been  other  cemeteries  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  pueblo,  as  the  number  of  skeletons  found  by  us 


KlVA. 


was  quite  disproportionate  to  the  size  of  the  settlement.  Dili- 
gent search  and  much  fruitless  trenching  failed,  however,  to 
hit  upon  them. 

The  north  mound,  which  was  about  80  feet  leng  and  30 
feet  wide,  was  perhaps  5  feet  thick  at  the  centre,  sloping  off 
at  the  edges  to  the  level  of  the  surrounding  ground.  It  was 
composed  of  dark  earth,  quite  distinct  from  the  red  soil  of 
the  neighborhood.  This  darkness  appears  to  come  from  the 
admixture  of  organic  substances  such  as  would  naturally  be 
present  in  the  refuse  of  the  village.  Broken  and  split  bones 
of  animals  and  birds,  quantities  of  charcoal,  and  numberless 
potsherds  were  everywhere  present,  particularly  in  the  upper 


358 


A.    V.    SID  DEB 


layers  of  the  mound.  From  this  it  would  appear  that  the 
cemetery  was  also  used  as  a  refuse  heap,  and  owes,  perhaps,  the 
greater  part  of  its  mass  to  debris  from  the  pueblo. 

The  burials  were  almost  all  placed  just  upon  the  top  of  the 
red  subsoil  ;  several,  however,  were  found  in  shallow  depres- 
sions scraped  in  it,  but  in  no  case  was  the  body  covered  by  the 
red  soil.  No  definite  orientation  of  the  burials  was  observable. 
The  bodies  were  placed  here  and  there  without  relation  one  to 
another.  The  majority  of  the  individuals  were  laid  on  the 


FIGURE  10.  —  GRAVE  AND  CONTENTS. 


side,  the  knees  drawn  up  toward  the  chest,  the  elbows  flexed 
on  the  knees,  and  the  hands  placed  in  front  of  or  beside  the 
face  (Fig.  10). 

Pottery  was  buried  with  about  one  skeleton  in  five,  but 
where  it  was  present  there  were  enough  pieces  to  bring  the 
general  average  up  to  about  one  piece  for  every  skeleton  un- 
earthed. One  burial  had  no  less  than  ten  pieces  placed  with  it 
in  the  grave. 

When  one  or  two  pots  only  were  deposited  with  a  body  they 


EXPLORATIONS   IN    UTAH  359 

were  set  in  front  of  the  face;  if  more  were  to  be  interred,  they 
were  usually  laid  beside  the  hips,  either  in  front  or  behind; 
while  with  the  skeleton  mentioned  above,  the  pieces  were  dis- 
posed in  such  a  way  as  nearly  to  encircle  the  body,  several 
large  bowls  being  nested  together  in  front  of  the  face.  We 
found  no  example  of  the  practice,  common  in  certain  localities, 
of  inverting  a  bowl  over  the  head. 

Articles  of  personal  adornment  of  an  imperishable  nature 
were  limited  to  beads  made  of  olivella  shells  and  of  sections  of 
hollow  bone.  Such  objects  were  taken  from  the  earth  below 
the  head  and  shoulders,  indicating  their  use  as  necklaces.  A 
few  bone  scrapers  and  chipped  knives  were  uncovered  in  the 
neighborhood  of  skeletons,  but  not  close  enough  to  warrant 
definite  association.  No  arrowheads,  club-heads,  or  axes  were 
found  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  any  burial.  From  this  it 
would  seem  unlikely  that  weapons  were  placed  with  the  dead. 

Collections.  —  The  collections  from  the  excavation  consist  of 
skeletal  remains,  pottery,  vessels  and  pipes,  ceremonial  objects 
of  stone  and  pottery;  bone  awls,  skin-scrapers,  and  needles; 
beads  of  shell,  bone,  stone,  and  pottery;  stone  axes,  polishing 
stones,  sandal  stones,  and  various  kinds  of  clipped  implements 
such  as  knives,  spear-heads,  and  projectile  points. 

Because  of  the  exposed  position  of  the  ruin  there  were  re- 
covered no  objects  of  basketry,  textiles,  or  wood.  No  trace  of 
metal  was  found. 

The  material  is  now  deposited  in  the  Museum  of  the  state 
University  of  Utah.  A  report  upon  it  will  be  presented  as  soon 
as  I  am  able  to  visit  Salt  Lake  City  and  study  the  collections 
adequately. 

A.  V.  KIDDER. 

PEABODY  MUSEUM, 

CAMBRIDGE,  MASS. 


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